This invention relates to a vapor-liquid contacting system. Distillation, absorption, and stripping are vapor-liquid contacting operations used in oil refinery, petrochemical, chemical and other related industries.
The vapor-liquid contact usually takes place in a tower. Inside the tower, the vapor-liquid contact can be accomplished through plates or packings. Plate-type towers utilize plates or trays, spaced apart by a predetermined distance, which service as the phase contacting area. Packings are designed to promote a large area of contact between phases with a minimum resistance to the flow of the two phases. Packings generally can be classified into two types: structured packings and random packings. Structured packings are the pre-assembled packing elements consisting of parallel corrugated strips of sheets or wire meshes. Random packings are dumped at random into a tower.
Random packings are in the form of divided solids, shaped so as to provide a good vapor-liquid contact. The liquid flows down over the surface of the solids, and is exposed to the vapor which flows upward through the open channels not filled by packings or the liquid. Liquid distribution and liquid channeling have a major effect on tower performance. A good liquid distributor to evenly distribute the liquid over the top of packings is a necessity for achieving a good vapor-liquid contact. Quite often vapor or liquid channeling inside a packed tower can occur at extreme high or low flow rates either in liquid or vapor phase.
I have now invented a novel random packing which provides lateral liquid distribution and an efficient vapor-liquid contact.